Riding to the Phillip Island Moto GP

Every year going "the Island", as the world's greatest motorcycle race track is fondly known by Australian motorcycle riders, is preceded by a mass ride call the Cranbourne GP Run.

This year I attached a GoPro camera to the front and rear of my Harley Davidson. This was the result:

Over the years, this event has grown enormously. Something that started with just a couple of hundred riders, is today a 10,000+ bike spectacular that brings out thousands of spectators who line the route all the way to the Island.

Cranbourne GP Run

Intersted in this sort of experience? Visit our Harley Touts site.

The Best Way to See Melbourne

Just ask anyone how has come out for a ride with us. Its only after the ride that the lights come on. As you can see here by the reaction we got from Mike.

Sharing the Harley Davidson Brand

The Harley Davidson story is a marketing legend. Long known for giving its customers what they want, and understanding the people who ride their machines Harley Davidson have survived against all odds by leading the field with "Iconic branding".

If it were not for the iconic nature of the Harley Davidson motorcycle, and the throb of the Harley Sound emitted by their "head turning" machines, I doubt that the Harley Rides Industry would have evolved in Australia, as in did in the early '90s. Since 1993 when HD Chauffeur Ride Pty Ltd was founded literally hundreds of thousands of people have been introduced to the Harley Davidson Brand on individual Harley Rides given to them as a gift by a family member or friend as a birthday gift, Hens and Bucks Day rides, wedding anniversary surprise etc. In addition there have been many thousands of tourists visiting Australia (and in our case Melbourne) who have recognised that taking a ride on the back of a Harley Davidson motorcycle is the best form of transport that guarantees that they will see more of Melbourne, the nearby hills and the Great Ocean Road. Its simply because the view one gets seated on the back of a motorbike, while someone else does the riding just can't be matched by any other mode of transport which sets the Harley Ride Experience apart.

But, by far the largest group, outnumbering all others are the children and their parents with whom we come into contact at school fetes and fairs. It is at the fundraising events, that over just a few hours we expose up to 100 or more people to the Harley Ride Experience. At these events we bring people into contact wit the Harley Davidson Brand for the first time. Most have never possessed an inclination or any interest in motorcycles, and many have never even heard or been aware of the Harley Davidson marque. What occurs at this time quite often results in a transformation, creation of desire, and a marked reversal in attitude towards the Motorcycle. For many, it marks the day when they decided to get a motorcycle of their own. I well recall meeting a guy, several years ago, who came up to me one day and told me how after his Harley Ride he went on to obtain his motorcycle licence, purchase of harley Davidson and then go on to become the President of his local HOG (Harley Owners Group) Chapter!

We have no formal connection with Harley Davidson, and our services carry no endorsement from them, despite the fact that we can claim a role in the sale of many of their machines over the years. Perhaps, one day they may give us some formal recognition, but we don't expect it.

In the meantime we will continue to share the Harley Davidson motorcycle with their potential customers. Times are becoming highly competitive and many Harley Davidson clones have emerged emulating the Harley Iconic V-Twin design. Whenever, we take anyone out for a Harley Ride Experience, our focus is on explaining to them why we have chosen a Harley Davidson over the others. Its the Icon, H-D set the standard and the height of the bar. Its up to the others to reach the level of Iconic Status held by the Harley Davidson. Its not until one has owned a Harley Davidson of their own that they are able to recognise why Harley Davidson has become the world's greatest Marketing and Branding success, a story which is studied by every aspiring entrepreneur.

A group of tourist s visiting Melbourne

Corporate Bonding

Melbourne is the Conference Capital of Australia, and attracts events from all over the world to the Melbourne Convention Centre on the bank of the Yarra River.

This past week, saw one company utilise us as a Staff Bonding Activity at their annual conference. We formed one part of an overall activity organised by our Partner Big Stick Adventures. Here is how it looked:

Of course, the staff had no idea what to expect and were surprised when Big Stick initiated the activity.

Youtube Harley Rides on New Year's Eve

What do you do to make New Year's Eve just a little bit different? Organise a Harley Ride for your guests attending your themed party is one option chosen by one of our customers to celebrate the end of 2011 last year.

Or to waste a little time before the big night, on a visit to Melbourne two girls chose to take a ride to start their big day off, before partying the night away.

Tanya's Harley Davidson Ride

As a reward for good work, Tanya was given a Harley Ride by her employer. The ride was for two people, so she took her partner out for the ride with us. This is but one of the many types of ride that we do. Staff rewards in the form of a Harley Ride are something that always goes down well.

On this occasion the ride started and finished in Williamstown. Lasting for an hour we went over the West gate Bridge to St Kilda and back.

Out with Caroline Wozniacki at the Australian Open

From time to time we get requests to take various sporting professionals out for a Harley Ride. Today the request came from the promotions staff at the Australian Open Tennis. Evidently one of the players, in the case 12th Seed Caroline Wozniacki, had shown an interest in going for a Harley Ride.

It was interesting to talk to Caroline. She expressed a desire to get her own motorcycle one day, and consequently I was able to give her some advice.

The purpose of the activity was to allow several film crews to photograph and video the entire event. The last time I did the same thing it involved Rafael Nadal. I did remind Caroline that every professional tennis player that I have ever taken out for a Harley Ride has end up being ranked Number One in the world!

Needless to say I will be keeping a close eye on Caroline's progress over the next few years. When I took Rafael Nadal out for a ride - he couldn't speak a word of english.

And you can view the video clip of the Harley Ride Here

Big Stick Movie Experience 12th January 2008

Large corporate activities are things that we often get involved in. This month we were called upon by Big Stick Adventures to be part of an activity which invovled a Corprate Incentive Reward activity, the theme for the day which was a "movie experience". The day involved filming us and other forms of transport chasing a "bad guy" around Melbourne with the corporates who captured the bad guy in the end. Prior to the day some pre filming was done, so that when the final product was edited at the end of the day it looked like a genuine "action movie". Things you can do on a Harley Ride - the options are endless.

You Tube Harley Ride Video Clips

In Australia a Harley Ride means taking someone, os a pillion passenger, for a joyride on a Harley Davidson motorcycle. In Australia, we don't refer to our machines as "our ride". We go for a ride with friends, and we take people for a ride on our bikes....

In Australia, we have a Harley Rides Industry - yes, people who have never been near a motorcycle in their lives, or have never thought of owning a bike, actually pay to be given a motorcycle experience. You would be amazed at who and what we have done with our H-Ds over the years.

A complete set of Harley Ride video clips, taken over the last few years are now on You Tube. Or you can view the best of them here (please rate them for me and let me know what you think):

Here is the first video clip I produced several years ago, on a Yarra Valley Wineries Tour:




This clip was one of the first ones I did with WIN TV about our Introduction to Melbourne Tour :




You can view all the other clips Here

Conference Surprise

Things we sometimes do may surprise many people. One request is to ride a H-D into a Conference, with the Master of Ceremonies seated on the back. The idea is to create an atmoshere of excetiment.

Last Saturday morning John was called for yet another Grand Entrace activity. But, this time there was a twist - John would not be riding the bike. This time the rider was TV personality Larry Emdur.

John tells Larry, "Give it heaps."

The venue for the activity was the Langham Hotel in Melbourne.

We had to get the Harley in early (6.30am), because both Larry and the bike were planned as a surprise and both had to be kept out of sight.

As it turns out Larry owns his own H-D and subsequently he and John were able to share experiences as they sat out of sight as the conference attendies filed in for the breakfast session.

As a general rule, John rarely allows anyone to ride his bike, but this time he quite happily made an exception.